May 2018 – Swine in Minnesota

Dr. Rebecca Robbins to Receive 2018 Allen D. Leman Science in Practice Award

Rebecca Robbins (1) (1)(1) The University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine has named Rebecca Robbins, DVM, PhD, as the 2018 recipient of the Allen D. Leman Science in Practice award. Robbins is the senior production veterinarian for Seaboard Foods, one of the nation’s leading pork producers and processors.

The Science in Practice award is given each year at the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference in St. Paul, Minn. It is the industry’s premier award for swine practitioners who have shown an exceptional ability to use science in day-to-day practice. Nominations and selection of the winner are determined by a swine faculty planning committee at the University.

The 2018 award recognizes Robbins’ service on Seaboard Foods’ research and development team, which coordinates an average of 45 studies annually. She also participates in university research projects and has served on numerous industry advisory boards. Robbins’ research interests are in the use of antibiotics in pork production, epidemiology, and management of mycoplasmas, PRRSv, and PEDv in integrated systems.

“For more than 20 years this award has honored some of the most accomplished veterinary leaders in the swine industry,” says Montse Torremorell, DVM, PhD, and professor in the Department of Veterinary Population Medicine at the University. “We are excited to honor Dr. Robbins and to have the support of Boehringer Ingelheim for this award.”

Boehringer Ingelheim sponsors the reception for the Science in Practice award. “Boehringer Ingelheim is pleased to join the University of Minnesota in congratulating Dr. Robbins, an outstanding swine practitioner whose work ensures pig health is a priority from start to finish,” says Jens Kjaer, DVM, MBA, senior associate director for swine technical marketing for Boehringer Ingelheim. “BI is committed to supporting swine industry leaders in their pursuit of knowledge and science to drive innovative solutions.”

The Allen D. Leman Swine Conference will be held September 15-18, 2018 at the Saint Paul RiverCentre. From its beginning in 1974, the conference has presented information and issues pertinent to the swine industry. The conference has transformed from a meeting in a small lecture hall to the annual, international conference with more than 800 participants that we know it as today.

Visit www.lemanswine.umn.edu for more information.

Science Page: Sow farm classification according to Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae status

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week, we are sharing a collaboration between the University of Barcelona and Dr. Maria Pieters from the UMN regarding sow farm classification according to Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae status.

Key points:

Sow farm classification according to M. hyopneumoniae status helps to manage this bacterium’s transmission chain.
The proposed farm classification system for M. hyopneumoniae can be used for one (farrow-to-finish) or multiple-site (farrow-to-wean and farrow-to-nursery) production systems.
Monitoring of M. hyopneumoniae to classify farms requires the combination of observational and laboratory analyses.

Evaluation of a Partially De-oiled Microalgae Product in Nursery Pig Diets

The publication we are sharing today is a collaboration between the Department of Animal Science, the Department of Food Science and nutrition and the West Central Outreach and Research Center at the University of Minnesota. It is published in open access in the journal Translational Animal Science.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential use of microalgae extract (MAE) as a feed ingredient in nursery pig diets.

Methods

300 weaned pigs were selected, blocked by initial body weight and allotted to 60 pens, with five pigs per pen. Ratio of gilts and barrows was balanced evenly. Pens within blocks were assigned randomly to one of five dietary treatments.

Dietary treatments included:

corn and soybean meal (CON),
CON with 1% MAE,
CON with 5% MAE,
CON with 10% MAE
CON with 20% MAE.

Diets were formulated to meet the nutrient requirements of nursery pigs and fed using a 3-phase program, where each phase consisted of a 2-wk period.

Average Daily Gain (ADG), Average Daily Feed Intake (ADFI) and Gain to Feed (G:F) were measured weekly.

After 42 days, 30 pigs were harvested and intestinal samples were collected to measure mucosal length and goblet cell quantifications.

Results

Final body weight of pigs among pens consuming MAE was greatest when consuming 1, 5, or 10% MAE compared with those fed the control diet, but feeding 20% MAE was not different from the control diet. The greater final body weight appeared to be the result of greater ADG from days 1 and 7, due to a higher ADFI.

There was no effect of feeding MAE on G:F during most weigh periods except during days 15 to 21 when G:F increased in pigs fed MAE.

Feeding diets with MAE did not result in changes in intestinal architecture measured by the height of the intestinal mucosal or presence of mucus-producing cells in the jejunum. In contrast, the ileum of pigs fed the 5% MAE diet tended to have reduced mucosal height compared with that of pigs fed 20% MAE diet. Goblet cell area of the ileum was not affected by dietary treatments.

Link to the full article

Abstract

Although microalgae can be used as a source of energy and macronutrients in pig diets, there is limited information on the use of partially de-oiled microalgae co-products in swine feeding programs. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of a partially de-oiled microalgae extract (MAE) in nursery pig diets on growth performance and health status. A total of 300 pigs (initial BW = 6.3 ± 2.1 kg) were used in a 42-d experiment. Treatments included a standard corn-soybean meal control diet, and diets containing 1, 5, 10, or 20% MAE replacing primarily corn. The ME content of MAE was calculated from the chemical composition, and diets were formulated to meet or exceed nutrient requirements for nursery pigs. Pigs were stratified by weaning BW into 12 blocks in a randomized complete block design, with sex distributed evenly among blocks. Pens of pigs (5 pigs/pen) were assigned randomly within block to one of 5 dietary treatments. Pig BW and feed disappearance were recorded weekly. On d 42, thirty pigs were harvested and sections of the jejunum and ileum were collected for gut morphology analysis, and a liver sample was collected for metabolomic analysis using liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Data were analyzed by ANOVA with diet as treatment effect, and contrasts were used to test linear or quadratic effects of dietary MAE inclusion level. Overall, pigs fed 1 and 5% MAE had the greatest (quadratic P < 0.05) ADG, resulting from greater (quadratic P < 0.05) ADFI. There was a tendency for a greater number of pigs requiring injectable treatments (P = 0.16) and a greater mortality (P = 0.14) in pigs fed the control diet than pigs in any of the diets with the MAE. Final BW increased (P < 0.05) for pigs fed 1 and 5% MAE diets. The improvements in ADG were not explained by differences in mucosa height or goblet cell count among dietary treatments. Pigs fed diets containing 1 or 5% MAE had relatively less concentration (P < 0.05) of ammonia in the liver and had changes in metabolites associated with the urea cycle. In conclusion, feeding MAE resulted in increased growth responses and may have beneficial health effects when fed to nursery pigs.

Science Page: Effective disease surveillance and response strategies depend on detailed swine shipment data

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week, we are sharing a report regarding the use of swine shipment data for effective disease surveillance by Drs. Amy Kinsley, Meggan Craft, Andres Perez, and Kim VanderWaal.

Key point:

A production system’s vulnerability to disease spread can be greatly reduced when selectively identifying a subset of farms as disease control targets.

What was done:

In this study, we used a network approach to describe annual movement patterns between swine farms in three multi-site production systems (1,063 farms) in the United States.

We measured:

degree: number of farms to which a farm ships or receives pigs
farm’s individual contribution to disease spread via its movements
mean infection potential (MIP), which measures potential incoming and outgoing infection chains

What was found:

Removing farms based on their mean infection potential substantially reduced the potential for transmission of an infectious pathogen through the network when compared to removing farms at random, as shown by a reduction in the magnitude of R0 attributable to contact pattern.
The MIP was more efficient at identifying targets for disease control compared to degree and farm’s contribution to disease spread.

What does this mean?

By targeting disease interventions towards farms based on their mean infection potential, we can substantially reduce the potential for transmission of an infectious pathogen in the contact network, and performed consistently well across production systems.
Fine-scale temporal movement data is important and is necessary for in-depth understanding of the contact structure in developing more efficient disease

Best of Leman 2017 series #7: P. Yeske – Assessment of the likelihood of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae lateral transmission

We launched a new series on the blog in October. Once a month, we are sharing with you a presentation given at the 2017 Allen D. Leman swine conference, on topics that the swine group found interesting, innovative or that lead to great discussions.

Our seventh presentation is by Dr. Paul Yeske from Swine Vet Center regarding the likelihood of lateral transmission of Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae.

To listen to this talk, please click on the image below.